DevilDuck Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 I wanted to show just how effective running a small macroalgae refugium in my set up. Tank: Fluval Evo AIO 13.5g total Chamber 2 is filled with a mix of 1/3 chaeto and 2/3 red gracilaria Light: cheap 12w LED grow light attached directly to the glass. Lighting period: 11pm-7am Test Kit: API Nitrate test March 22 - Approx 30-40 ppm March 23 - approx 10 ppm FTS 2 Quote Link to comment
DevilDuck Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 Also I found using this image is much easier than the card that came with the API Nitrate test. Quote Link to comment
mitten_reef Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 1 hour ago, DevilDuck said: I wanted to show just how effective running a small macroalgae refugium in my set up. Tank: Fluval Evo AIO 13.5g total Chamber 2 is filled with a mix of 1/3 chaeto and 2/3 red gracilaria Light: cheap 12w LED grow light attached directly to the glass. Lighting period: 11pm-7am Test Kit: API Nitrate test March 22 - Approx 30-40 ppm March 23 - approx 10 ppm FTS Sooo, if it drove N down that much in one day - what r u gonna do when N runs out? 1 1 Quote Link to comment
JustReading Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 Mine ran out....I did the non conventional stup remover Added way too much so don't do what I did Quote Link to comment
DevilDuck Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 2 hours ago, mitten_reef said: Sooo, if it drove N down that much in one day - what r u gonna do when N runs out? I can dose N back up with stump remover for the short term, but this is not something I want to keep dosing. Next steps: 1. Reduce lighting period to 4 hours and dose nitrate back up to 10 ppm and see where we are the next day. 2. If it still low then, I will remove the chaeto leaving the slower growing red gracilaria, dose back up to 10 ppm and measure the consumption over 24 hours 3. If none of those work, just shutdown refugium since my corals and display tank macros uptake enough. I'll probably replace the refugium macroalgae with some biomedia or rock rubble to house copepods. 1 Quote Link to comment
DevilDuck Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 23 minutes ago, JustReading said: Mine ran out....I did the non conventional stup remover Added way too much so don't do what I did Here's my calculation from http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm Fluval Evo total volume is about 13g 1 cup of RODI = 236.6 ml I mix 2 tablespoons of stump remover to 1 cup of RODI water Gives me a solution that will raise about 2 ppm of nitrate per 1 ml dose into 13 g of water. I find that there is a 1 day delay from when you dose to when the nitrate shows up on the API test. Quote Link to comment
JustReading Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 See I did a cup of tank water. Mixed one glass of tank water, added a TSP then dumped the whole thing back in. I had so much Nitrate it was insane. I'm obviously not good at this. I should just copy you a week later after you figure it out Quote Link to comment
DevilDuck Posted March 24, 2021 Author Share Posted March 24, 2021 52 minutes ago, JustReading said: See I did a cup of tank water. Mixed one glass of tank water, added a TSP then dumped the whole thing back in. I had so much Nitrate it was insane. I'm obviously not good at this. I should just copy you a week later after you figure it out By the calculator, that would have increased your nitrate by 75 ppm! I would just do the 2 tablespoons to 1 cup mix. It's easy to remember and dosing is also easy at 1 ml = 2 ppm. Quote Link to comment
DevilDuck Posted March 24, 2021 Author Share Posted March 24, 2021 Refugium Experiment Part 2 Dosed nitrate back up to about 10 ppm Removed all chaeto from the refugium and placed it into a container on my windowsill, leaving only the red gracilaria. Lighting period: 11pm-7am 3 Quote Link to comment
DevilDuck Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 Today's update Yesterday's results on the left, today's results on the right. There's a much smaller decrease. Maybe 5 ppm. I realize I should have started with a control run. Need to wait a few days until the nitrate is back down to undetectable levels. Next, I will dose nitrates it back up to 10 ppm, remove all macroalgae from the refugium and unplug the light. This should give a baseline for the display tank consumption. Quote Link to comment
JustReading Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 I'll be watching closely Quote Link to comment
DevilDuck Posted April 9, 2021 Author Share Posted April 9, 2021 Have some time this weekend to continue this little experiment. I'll be doing a control run with no macroalgae. This will give me an idea of the natural nitrate consumption of the tank and the impact of removing the macroalgae refugium. Dosed nitrate up to 10 ppm using Spectrum Tree Stump Remover Dosed phosphates to 0.06 ppm using Brightwell NeoPhos Macroalgae has been removed from the system and placed in a container on my windowsill. Pulled the power cord out of the refugium light. Interestingly, the filter chamber has been completely colonized by pineapple sponges. There are several large ones on the return pump! I will re-test on Monday and post the results. 1 Quote Link to comment
DevilDuck Posted April 12, 2021 Author Share Posted April 12, 2021 Nitrate results for today, it seems be under 10 ppm, slightly lighter than yesterday. I'm going to leave everything as is for now to see how long it takes to reach 0 ppm. 1 Quote Link to comment
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